Let’s Start With: One
We’re kicking things off with the track that started my whole metal journey – One by Metallica. A song that didn’t just blow my mind musically, but also showed me that metal can hit you right in the feels harder than most Oscar-winning dramas.
One – or How Metallica Taught Me to Listen (and Think)
Alright, here we go! Kicking things off with One – the track that marked the beginning of my metal adventure. Yes, folks, Metallica. The kings of black, killer riffs, long hair, and the eternal sighs of my grandma, who never understood how anyone could listen to “that noise.”
I remember it like it was yesterday – birthday, a gift, the Reload album. Back then, I had no clue it was one of the more controversial records among fans, but I was hooked. I hit play and… I was gone. I started digging into their discography deeper than a retired archaeologist, and that’s how I stumbled upon One.
Why that song, specifically? Because it’s not just music. It’s an atmosphere. It’s a sound that hits like a machine gun (that drum work is chef’s kiss). It’s Kirk Hammett’s solo that shoots straight through your skull. It was the first track where I really started to pay attention to the lyrics – and maybe, just maybe, I even understood a little (or at least thought I did). And then there’s the theme: war. Heavy stuff, but fascinating. It’ll come up a lot on this blog – not just in music.
And the video? Absolute fire. And I’ve got a few fun facts about it, too.
The Music Video That Split the Fans
One isn’t just a powerhouse of a track – it’s also… Metallica’s very first official music video. Yep, seriously. Before that, the guys were dead set against filming any videos. “Music is music, not some visuals,” they said. Old-school vibes, lots of rules, total anti-MTV attitude. But then came 1989, and something cracked – maybe James forgot the band’s rulebook password, or maybe Lars just really wanted to be on TV. Either way: One got a video.
And what a video it was! Shot in black and white (of course – classic), directed by Bill Pope and Michael Salomon. The band’s jamming away in some dark warehouse – pretty much what you’d expect. But then the film kicks in, and things get heavy.
Because half of that video isn’t even the band – it’s scenes from the 1971 movie Johnny Got His Gun. A total mind-bender about a soldier who steps on a landmine and loses everything – limbs, sight, hearing, speech. All that’s left is consciousness. The guy’s a living corpse, locked inside his body. And he’s begging – using Morse code – for someone to just end it already. 😶
Now, Metallica didn’t bother with licensing negotiations. Nah. They just straight-up bought the rights to the entire film. Like, “we’ll take the whole thing, thanks.” And that was that. No legal mess. Problem solved.
Fun fact: there are actually three versions of the One music video – the full one with the movie scenes, a version without the film (just the band doing their thing in the warehouse), and a shortened, more “radio-friendly” cut. I always go back to the first one – the most powerful version. Especially that one scene… when the wounded soldier “speaks” in Morse code, begging to die. That moment lodges itself in your brain and refuses to leave.
Fun fact #2: One wasn’t just Metallica’s first music video – it was also their first Grammy win. In 1990, in the newly created category of Best Metal Performance, they took home the little gold gramophone.
And rightfully so – if you’re gonna break your own rules, film a video, buy the rights to an entire movie, and create a track packed with raw emotion, then yeah, someone better hand you a shiny trophy.
Machine Gun on Cymbals – a Drum Part That Imitates a Gun
I’m no drummer. I can’t even tap a pencil on a table in time properly. But when I hear the drums in One, I get chills. And not just any chills – I see a battlefield in my mind, flashes of explosions, and a soldier in a trench who knows he probably won’t make it home for Christmas.
Because Lars Ulrich doesn’t just play the drums in this song. He simulates gunfire. That famous drum part in the second half of the track? Pure machine gun. Tight, fast, relentless – like someone firing off an M60 using cymbals and a snare. And there’s no mercy – the sound hits your ears like a burst into an empty beer can.
But before that percussive napalm drops, the song takes its time: it starts almost like a ballad. Gentle guitar picking, James singing softly, a sad, melancholic vibe. And then – BAM. Lars kicks in, and nothing’s the same anymore.
This isn’t random – that drum part tells a story. It’s the rhythm of a war machine, the sound of the heartless death industry. Yeah, I know, that sounds dramatic – but seriously, listen to it with headphones on, and you’ll feel like you’re part of something bigger than just a metal song.
And yeah, Lars gets a lot of flak from fans for his technique (sometimes rightly so – let’s not pretend), but in One, he created something iconic. You don’t have to know anything about music to feel that rhythm in your gut. It’s not just sound – it’s percussion-grade weaponry.
Guitar Like a Bullet – Kirk Hammett Goes Full Combat Mode
When we talk about One, we have to mention Kirk Hammett. The guy doesn’t just complement the atmosphere in this track – he launches it straight into orbit. In the second half of the song, after Lars has laid down his machine-gun drum barrage and the band’s gone full throttle, Kirk drops his solo – and that’s when your headphones start to smoke.
This solo isn’t just some fancy embellishment. It’s not decoration. It’s a full-on assault. You blast through it like a bullet fired from the very gun Lars just mimicked with his drumming. Technically – it’s a wild ride. Emotionally – it’s panic, chaos, survival. It feels like the guitar is literally screaming alongside the poor soldier trapped inside his own body.
And that’s what I love about this track: everything works together. The guitar doesn’t feel separate. It tells the story along with the vocals, the lyrics, the drums. Kirk’s not just shredding for the sake of it – every note means something. This is war. This is a scream. This is a dive into the abyss.
What’s wild is – the solo isn’t even that crazy-hard from a technical standpoint (I mean, Metallica has more complex stuff). But the emotion it carries? Completely unmatched. Kirk isn’t just flexing his fingers in One – he’s painting despair with sound. And for that, he deserves all the praise.
What Is One Really About? The Scream No One Hears
If you thought One was just another metal song about war and the horrors of the battlefield – well, you’re right… but only halfway. Because this track isn’t about war itself. It’s about a man after the war – or rather, its most brutal, dehumanizing aftermath.
The story told in the lyrics is the tragedy of a soldier blown apart by a landmine. Literally. He loses his arms, legs, sight, hearing, speech. He’s lying somewhere in a military hospital – unable to move, unable to speak, unable to even beg. But he’s thinking. He’s aware. The whole time.
And that’s the real nightmare: being trapped inside your own body, unable to make contact with the world. It’s not sci-fi. It’s not a metaphor. It’s a real prison. You’re alive – but you can’t say anything, ask for anything, or even take your own life.
At some point, the protagonist discovers he can communicate through Morse code – and he begs the staff for just one thing: kill me.
Honestly, the first time I really dove into the lyrics, I was speechless. Before that, I’d always focused on the music, the mood, the dramatic storytelling. But once I absorbed the words, I realized – this isn’t just a story about war. It’s a story about absolute isolation. About a life that stopped being life a long time ago.
And this isn’t some wild invention by Metallica – the lyrics were inspired by the novel Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo, which was later adapted into a film and used in the music video. So the circle closes – the lyrics, visuals, and sound merge into something bigger than just a song.
Why One Is More Than Just a Song to Me
We all have that one track that opens something up. Some kind of portal to another world. To memories, emotions, first times – not the romantic kind, but the musical kind. One is that track for me.
It was the first time I didn’t just listen to music – I felt it with my whole being. The first time lyrics weren’t just background noise, but a story I could unpack for hours. The first time I saw a guitar solo not just as a show of skill, but as a language that could say more than a thousand words.
And finally – the first time music showed me that war isn’t just about explosions, tanks, and Call of Duty. It’s loneliness. Despair. Silence. Helplessness. And somewhere in all of that – a tiny spark of hope that someone will hear you, even if all you have is Morse code and your head tapping against a pillow.
I’ve come back to this song a thousand times. Sometimes to get fired up, sometimes to calm down, and sometimes just because it still hits me the same way it did the very first time – when I was wearing a stretched-out T-shirt and listening on a sketchy Discman from the local flea market.
I don’t know if One is Metallica’s best song. But for me, it’s the most important one. Because it’s where everything started.
Thanks for sticking with me till the end.
And if you still haven’t played this song – seriously, what are you even doing with your life?
Leave a Comment